Sponsor: Canterbury USA

Sponsor: Vegas 7s

Sponsor: Nike Rugby Camps

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Nick Grass Suspension Clarified

With a new league there is expected to be some early confusion regarding procedures and protocol around a number of things, including suspensions. That's the case with San Francisco forward Nick Grass who was involved in an incident on Sunday against Sacramento. Replays show Grass appearing to gouge the eyes of a Sacramento player. The referee missed a direct view but did show Grass a yellow card at the time.

The next day San Francisco coach Paul Keeler announced that his team was suspending Grass indefinitely. However, from what we've been told that is not an official response from the league but a precautionary measure from Keeler.

Here is what we received from PRO Rugby: "As a World Rugby sanctioned event, we are required to follow all World Rugby protocols, in this instance Reg 17 which requires a citing within 48 hours. That was already done by the Citing Commissioner for that game and Grass’s case has gone to the appropriate Judicial Officer. There will be no official statement from PRO Rugby until the J.O delivers a verdict."

2 comments:

It's actually quite hard to watch this incident. There's a lot going on with it. A punch is thrown, he lands with knees to the chest of the guy on the ground, he then tries to scratch out and then shove his thumb through the eye of Sacramento player. There is something either very wrong with Nick to bring this type of play to the field or there is something that happened prior to this clip that caused this reaction. Like, maybe the sacramento player knocked up Grass's girlfriend or something.